


high tide

by OceanMyth



Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [37]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/F, Ficlet, Fluff, about shore and sea meeting, sickeningly sappy suki, they are in love, thoughts about the tide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29748465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanMyth/pseuds/OceanMyth
Summary: Suki and Katara reunite after spending time apart.
Relationships: Katara/Suki (Avatar)
Series: Ocean's ATLA Drabbles, Oneshots, and Ficlets [37]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2113209
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	high tide

When the winter is over, and the air smells like spring again, Suki looks to the south. As soon as the air smells heavy with melting snow and the rivers swell, she finds herself on the cliffs on the south side of the island, watching the horizon once again.

It will be high tide soon now, those precious hours where the ocean's spray crashes against the rocks and cliffs on the backside of the island, away from the gentle slopes and beaches of the bay where the Unagi sleeps. It will be the time where land and sea collide, and Suki waits impatiently at the cliff’s edge for her to arrive.

It’s probably a coincidence that Katara always arrives at high tide, but Suki can’t be sure. So she waits and watches the horizon and thinks about how much the wear of months must have changed Katara while she was away.

Whether a new freckle or slight silver scar, there is always a change. Water isn’t permanent in the same way that earth is— though Suki is sure that Katara measures the changes of her own body in much the same way, when she’s not paying attention. Still, it's a nice and fantastical thought to occupy her while waiting.

She is just about to give up for the day, when there is a dark blip on the horizon, coming closer at a speed that would be impossible for any ship without a waterbender on board to achieve.

It’s her.

It has to be.

Suki takes a second, searching look, and then turns to sprint back to the village. 

Katara’s ship reaches docks more quickly than Suki had expected, and suddenly Suki’s arms are full of parka and a pair of bright eyes and an equally bright smile. There’s a warm bubbly feeling in her stomach, a swoop that comes without fail at every reminder that Katara is just as excited for their reunions as Suki.

Her greeting of choice for her waterbending partner is a brief kiss, brushed across wind chapped and sea-bitten lips.

“How are your classes going?” Suki asks, once she’s finally set Katara back down. 

Her voice doesn’t want to work right away, and she needs to swallow once or twice before she can say anything. The worst part of coming back together is the moments before they come back into a rhythm. There are grooves and nicks worn into Suki’s soul by Katara and her presence, yet the first few moments they spend together after a month apart never fail to feel strange.

“Did Sokka ever tell you about the owl spirit we met in the desert?”

“Oh— yes. So many times. I think I’ve heard the story once for every fact that Wan Shi Tong knows. I’m not sure what it was about that experience, but he spent a lot of time picking at the memory, trying to unravel its meaning and make it into something he could be proud of.” Katara snorts.  
  


“That sounds like Sokka.” Katara sucks in a deep breath, and shakes herself just a little. “ Sorry. You were asking about my classes, and how the work has been going, trying to rediscover the Southern bending forms— I think the best way to describe it is that I’m afraid that we’ve become the people who have lost Ten Thousand Things.”

“Sometimes I find myself thinking about— what if I could go back to the library? Aang helps where he can… it’s not always enough.” Katara kicks a rock over the side of the cliff, and watches the long arc it makes into the crashing waves.

“It wouldn’t help aways— not without the mouths to tell the stories, and there’s still so few of us— but I find myself dreaming about mending the holes of our history like that anyway. Sometimes I think I waste too much time here. And then I remember that the war is over, and things are allowed to be slow now.”

Suki wraps one hand around Katara’s clenched fist. Katara relaxes ever so slowly, eventually turning her hand to lace her fingers through Suki’s, which have remained open and patient. Katara’s hands are more callused than they were during her last visit— Suki’s not sure why, but she lets herself trace the ridges and lines of Katara’s palm.

“Come on slowpoke! I’ve been bending all day, and I think you owe me a massage and a hot bath,” she calls over her shoulder, turning towards the village. Suki watches Katara’s long braid bounce against her back as she runs down the path and smiles to herself.

Katara comes and goes like waves lapping against the rocks. The tide will lower and recede back towards the horizon, but Suki has lived on this island her entire life. She knows that it will always come back.

**Author's Note:**

> i was trying to write Aang Week ficlets but my brain demanded i write this instead.
> 
> sometimes a metaphor just holds you hostage and won't let you go until you explore where it wants to take you.
> 
> tell me what you thought in the comments, or on tumblr @justoceanmyth


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